At this week’s monthly Park Station meeting, a small crowd turned out to hear Capt. John Sanford report declines in several crime categories and offer a look at the station’s plans for coping with two events expected to draw large crowds to the area.

This
year, “we are starting to get prepared for anything that may
potentially happen," he said, "and we’re getting these officers in
place."

“Whenever we take officers out of a patrol car and put them in an area to walk on foot," said Sanford, "we do that at the expense of calls for service throughout the district. So, we have to be very careful with our strategic deployment of these officers.”

Excluding the SF Deltas team, fewer than 10 people attended.

Park District Crime Stats: Most Categories Show Declines

The number of reported crimes fell across many categories in Park District last month; 33 burglaries were reported, an 8 percent drop from 36 in January.

Park District —- which includes Twin Peaks, part of the Inner Sunset, Cole Valley, The Haight, NoPa, Alamo Square, Duboce Triangle and the eastern end of Golden Gate Park —- also saw a substantial drop in vehicle-related crimes. Only 17 cars were reported stolen during the month of February, a 32 percent drop from 25 the month before.

So far, 42 cars have been stolen in the district in 2017, compared to 59 by this point in 2016, a 29 percent decrease. In February, 114 reports were filed for thefts from vehicles, compared to 156 the month before, a decrease of 5 percent. So far this year, 270 such reports have been filed.

Aggravated assaults, which promoted Sanford to relocate last month’s meeting to a NoPa City College classroom, were down 42 percent last month, with only 7 incidents reported, compared to 12 in January. Nineteen assaults have been reported in 2017, a 36 percent jump from the 14 reported by this time last year.

Regarding traffic enforcement, 74 drivers were cited for speeding, and 34 received tickets for running red lights within the district last month. Also, 270 drivers who blew through stop signs and 32 drivers who were caught using their cell phones were cited—no bicyclists received citations. A total of 126 other drivers were cited for miscellaneous offense.

Next month’s community meeting is scheduled for 6pm on Tuesday, April 11 at the First A.M.E. Zion Church community room at 2159 Golden Gate Ave.